Grand Champions Has Much More Going for It Than a Busy Schedule

They threw up a 340-room resort, a dozen courts, including a 10,500-seat stadium here, and immediately proclaimed it a world-class tennis facility.

Does the ambitious, $120-million Grand Champions resort complex here deserve that tag?

Well, maybe not yet.

It’s at least a little presumptuous to make that claim without having had the first fan sit in the stands and watch the first player hit a forehand. The place has yet to be critically judged by the professional tennis players and the sporting public.

The potential for a world-class tag is there. The National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow and Forest Hills are the only facilities with more seats than the Grand Champions complex.

Charlie Pasarell, Grand Champions president and Pilot Pen tournament director, tried to incorporate features from different sporting facilities, including some from modern professional football stadiums.

At one end of the stadium’s rim are 12 luxury suites, glass-enclosed and similar to those at football, baseball and hockey complexes. The other end has seating under a covered terrace, designed to give spectators shelter from the desert sun.

They’ve tried, too, to take care of that dreaded wind, a nemesis for any player. The court is sunken, 65 feet below ground level.

The new facility has approximately 2,000 more seats than the old home of the Pilot Pen,the La Quinta Hotel Tennis Club. Because the new stadium is included in the total resort package, it is difficult to give an accurate figure of the cost. Pasarell estimates it to be $12 million.

“I would say this has been a dream of mine for 42 years,” said Pasarell, laughing. He will celebrate his 43rd birthday Feb. 12, during the men’s 35-and-over tournament.

“No, really, I’ve been dreaming and wanting to do this for a long time,” he said. “It’s a team effort. When I take credit for something, I like to take it for the whole team.”

Although the sunken stadium isn’t visible from Highway 111, it is likely to make a noticeable impact on the economy of the greater Palm Springs area.

There will be three straight weeks of tournament activity at Grand Champions this month, starting with the $100,000 Newsweek women’s tournament next weekend. The 35-and-over event will follow Feb. 11-15, and the $435,000 Pilot Pen tournament is set for Feb. 16-22.

Still, when looking at the resort and tennis complex, the question comes to mind. Why? Surely the Palm Springs area doesn’t need another multimillion dollar facility to compete with all the other expensive resorts in the area.

“In my opinion, I believe that the surface has just been scratched in Palm Springs,” Pasarell said. “Even though it is situated in the desert, it can serve as a playground and a resort for the large population base.

“Maybe 14-16 million people live within an automobile drive from here. The reason we haven’t attracted as many tourists as Maui or Scottsdale or Orlando is because of the facilities. Before you can attract people, you have to have a place to put them.”

In looking at Grand Champions, you can say it is a very expensive place to put people, with the emphasis on very.

The hotel rate during the three tournaments is $245 a night. Ticket prices range from $12 in the grandstand on the first day of the women’s event to $25 in the loge on the final day. For the men’s Grand Prix tournament, grandstand tickets go from $10-$20 and loge tickets, $15-$35.

“We have cheap seats as well,” Pasarell said when asked whether the tournament was pricing itself out of the market. “Our prices are comparable to most of the other tournaments. Our boxes sell for $1,100, while ones at the U.S. Open are well over $3,000. We are not overpriced by any means. The result is that we will be sold out for the semifinals and finals.”

Pasarell’s eventual goal is to have the tournament be considered second only to the Open in the United States. With the addition of the new stadium, he believes that goal is within reach but doesn’t expect it to happen the first year.

“You can’t have a temporary facility, hold the tournament one week and tear it down the next,” Pasarell said.